No fun at all...

Okay, maybe a little.

I decided to take advantage of this gorgeous day and took some time off fom the job search to fly. It sort of felt like mandatory fun... my heart wasn't in it.

I flew the PulseXT first, and as always, she performed awesomely. I haven't had my hands on the sticks for a while, but she made me feel like I had never left. I only flew her twice today, but both so pleasant.

I then took the ill mannered, ill fated Green RC Super Cub up. It took about 8 tries to get her off the ground, and we only managed when Jerry held her on the ground at full throttle. She waffled up, I got her steady, then pulled back hard to clear the fence. She was wobbly, but I got her trimmed out and started to enjoy flying her in basic maneuvers for several minutes. I had had an 8x8 prop on her, and I think it was too much pitch. I changed to an 8x4 that Ron Johnson gave me, and she finally had good thrust, and that's when she got off the ground. I took her to altitude and throttled back for stall, she settled with a good sink rate but remained stable. At about 30', still in control, I powered up, she rolled hard right and spiraled into the ground. Just like she has done on every single flight. POS. I picked up the pieces, her broken fuse and crushed undercarriage, walked her back to the pits, and did what any good friend would do. I gave her to Ron. The curse is now upon him...

I also brought out the Sbach. Powered her up, she bound, and I started out to the flightline. In the 10 seconds it took me to get there she hard rebound 3 times. She would continue to do it evey few seconds. Crap. Took her back to the pits, tried another battery, checked for loose connections, etc. I think its the BEC on this HobbyWing ESC. Didn't I just have this problem? Wasn't it this ESC, on another plane? I need to look back through my blog. I have a HeadsUpRC 40A ESC that I will replace it with. So, I did't get to fly her, and I hope its not my new AR6000.

 

I did get to fly the EXI 450 BeastX Heli, and she was fun. It has been some time since I flew heli, and my initial flights were very over controlled. Got a couple of flights in, nothing much since I was not in the mood to rebuild a heli. Flew the PulseXT again and called it a day...

If it wasn't for the good company it would have been a bust. I got a hung from Sandra Gollot, spent some time chatting with Harold, Jerry and Steve, and Tony even dropped by.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe if I can get Kenny to show up...

 

Gettin' it done.

I redid the Sbach cowl after its meltdown. I really wasn't interested in spending hours sanding it all down, so just concentrated on the melted spots. It came out pretty darn good!

 

I didn't mention the flight of the haunted Super Cub... I maidened her the day before yesterday, and she took off okay, needed a lot of trimming out, but once I got her settled in she flew pretty darn good and was becoming fun. Until on approach she tip stalled... Broke the firewall, and that was it. Rebuilt it a bit better, and in an hour she was back up to flight ready. I also put some 2-1/2 inch wheels on her. I have programmed a little flaperon into her which should calm that nasty tip stall. This was the same experience Kenny had when he could get her to fly: any airflow loss and she tip stalls irrecoverably to death... I also went from a 10x7 prop to an 8x8, which seems to increase her thrust.

 

 

I decided with the Eflite Stearman to go back to 3S as she was designed to fly, and stick with the 12x6 prop. She flies just fine that way, I went to 4S for the power and it really didn't change her performance much. I think all it did was make her heavier.

Tomorrow is going to be way too windy, and I have some work to do anyway, but perhaps Sunday or Monday? I really, really want to get the Sbach back in the air! Stay tuned!

 

Glutton for punishment

I have related in previous blog posts my adventures with the Green RC Super Cub. It has never been one of my loves. Cubs are notoriously squirrely on the ground. This one would just never fly right. So I did what any good friend would, and I gave it to Kenny. Kenny tried, and it had its moments, but continued to be a POS. So, he did what any good friend would. He gave it back. I let it sit for a week and finally decided to do something with it. I don't know why this time would be any different...

Taken apart, no wheels, removed crushed motor, etc.

Rebuilt the front end. Been here before...

The servo box I built ln the right. I had no frickin' clue how I wanted to do this. I started with a horizontal servo position, realised I had no good way to secure it, then realized the servo would stand up fine in the existing space. Undid some work and made this box. Works perfectly.

The left box looks much better as this time I had a clue...

Servo and cote in place, all done. I installed a small piece of thick balsa sheet in the aileron to support the aileron control horn. I thought I had a photo of the plate I installed, but nope...

I changed the landing gear from the crappy wire ones to a set I took off the original Hobby King Sbach. They are a bit tall, but work great. I created a gear attachment with a piece of 4mm plywood an epoxied it to the bottom of the fuse, to which I bolted the screws for the gear. The design initally used embedded nuts, but they slipped trying to screw the bolts in, so I popped them out and used nuts and bolts. Came out perfect. If she flies well I plan to put big fat tundra tires on her.

I would like to fill in the chin, looks thin under there. She needs a better cowl.

That's a cowl from the a Parkzone cub, since I can't get one for this Green TC plane anymore. I need to find a better cowl, one with a chin on it.
So, here's hoping the remodeled Super Cub flies like an angel! I have no idea what themmotor is. She swings a 8x4 prop and seems to pull some decent thrust. A 20A ESC and a 3S 1000 mAh 25C battery, Orange reciever and satellite, two EXI D213f digital MG servos in the ailerons, and the stock 9g servos for rudder and elevator.
Here goes nothin'!

Skyangel F-86 Sabre: Bad ESC

My mini F-86 Sabre by Skyangel which I ordered from Hobby King arrived today! Very exciting, very fast  shipping (1 week via EMS). It was so simple a build, and took only an hour. What took longer was the ESC was bad... more on that in the video at the end of this post.

This is a well designed, very scale looking model!

A large white box, with this label in the corner. Very well packed. The model had a couple areas that were bent, likely from when it was packed, but not badly damaged.

All the parts, not many!

All done! Used epoxy and foam safe CA. Installed an Orange receiver and satellite. I later added the Pirate flag, welcoming her to the Piratey Squadron.

Curiously the securing screws in the elevator linkages were missing. I replaced them. I had to turn the linkages to the outside (removed them, reinstalled on the outside) as they were impossible to screw in this way. In this pick you can see the flat black I rattle canned into the exhaust (it was white).

Here's a video of the ESC problem I ran into. I was bummed since it is buried in the model and I had epoxied the wing. At first I thought all was lost, but I remembered reading about removing the panel aft of the wing on the underside of the plane to get to the EDF unit, and lo and behold, the ESC was easily accessed.  I was hoping it was just the motor wires were loose, but isolation determined it to be the ESC itself. I first replaced it during testing with an ESC from one of my 450 helis that is down, but its a 40A ESC. Once I was sure it was the ESC, I took the ESC from the Powerline Hobbies / Green RC Super Cub that hasn't flow right since I got it. It too is a 20A ESC. This will keep me from working on the Cub until I get a new ESC. Hoping Hobby King will replace the ESC.

Hoping to maiden her tomorrow!

Windy Day at KAMS

Our field at BMF remains half of what it is as the recent repairs have to be allowed to settle in. So Kenny Chandler and I visited KAMS Field in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and flew on a very windy cross wind day. I flew my Alpha Sport 450 and my T-28 Trojan, and he flew his Parkzone Super Cub, Striker and his 3-channel  Thunder Tiger Corsair. He flies the Corsair on full rates with no expo... made even more challenging by the winds.

Our station.

Kenny strapping on the wing. He had forgotten the wing bolt, so we used large wire ties and later rubber bands to strap the wing on.

Kenny and his Thunder Tiger 3-channel Corsair.

Wire ties holding the wing on.

Avast there ye Piratey Fella!

Today was an interesting day...

It started with the discovery that someone I thought was a gentleman and a friend was really a bully. Turns out he reacts like this when he doesn't get his way, I am told... We had the Piratey Flag for the Pirate Squadron flying below the American flag. I came out of the clubhouse having done some solder work, and he acosted me in front of a large crowd, including Bob Miller (see below), asking me if that had been my Pirate flag. I said yes, and looked realizing he had used past tense. He told me I could find it in the garbage where it belongs and proceeded to berate me angrily for flying it. I pulled it out of the trash, a bit bewildered why it merited such a spirited yet childish reaction. I calmly though shocked asked him why I deserved to be treated this way, and that I thought him a reasonable man, and was bewildered by this very unreasonable action. I knew this was not the place for a confrontation, but am saddened that the other members present we're cowed by this man and said nothing. I folded it, put it away, and let it go without further challenge, apologizing for any offense ("Apology accepted!"). I was ashamed for Mr. Miller, who had not visited our field, his field, for many years. I let the bully be. A member of Mr. Miller's group told me moments later they thought I handled the situation well, noting "You can't let the bullies win." Even they knew the situation for what it was. Unfortunately, the bullies are winning... if I had done this to him, I would have been told to leave and never come back.

But, it was another day with flying conditions beyond belief! Cool temps, light breeze. And I did get to meet the Bob Miller, for whom our field was named in respect to his efforts in establishing it. He is retired and lives near his family in Dallas. It was nice to meet a legacy who has given us this great place to play.

I flew my entire hangar of aircraft today, sort of, if we don't count the Super Cub which Ron helped me troubleshoot today. We think we are getting close to solving whatever the problem is. He took it up as we tweaked it, and when we did get it off the ground I am glad he was at the controls as it was really unstable. He managed to get her back down. Made some tweaks, but ran into a battery problem. My 3S 1000 mAh battries, some of the oldest and highest cycled batteries in my locker, would charge, but not discharge fast enough. No power. So I ended up retiring them one by one today. On my way home I dropped them off in the recycle bin at Home Depot. A couple of "corrections" to make to the Cornell and Stearman, but other than that, the planes handled the day well. And so did the Pirate flag, which, being a gentleman I will no longer fly on the flag pole, but reserve the right to display on my bench! Avast ye bully, hands off me property!

All looks, no action...

Sweet looking Green Model RC/Powerline Hobbies Super Cub after the repairs to the crushed front end, taken this past Tuesday. I added a new cowl, a modified Parkzone Mini Cub cowl split on the bottom.  I fired her up, rolled her out and she promptly nosed up and rolled hard right into the ground. Just like before. I had put in some right vector, maybe I need a little more down, but she has a lot of down... a lot. The second try bent the gear and I had enough so I put her away. I will straighten out the gear when I feel like wasting flying time. I put another washer in pushing the vector a little more right. I will fix the gear later and try again. I love/hate Cubbies... Here's a pic before the flight.

Super Cub Uncrunch Pt 1a

While waiting for batteries to charge in anticipation of flying tomorrow, I decided to go ahead and do the white cote job. I also finished off the red side stripes. Not bad...

Not  bad at all. Did the epoxy on the cracked cowl, and will repaint it tomorrow.

Super Cub Un-crunched Pt 1

This afternoon I began rebuilding the crunched Super Cub. I had no idea what I was going to do. I started by cutting the two sections free and seeing what fit and what didn't. I realized early on that the shelf in the middle was not going to fit back in properly. I also realized that the rather fragile fuse connections that fractured were mostly not going to bring the fuse back together. The only good connections were the two on the bottom... I really did a number on this one in this last crash! So... here's what happened:

The start. Held on by a small piece of cote...

Divided the sections and removed the electronics. It was a fairly clean break, but a lot of the pieces were shattered into chips.

I decided to start by reinforcing the existing firewall. It was crushed in one spot but unbroken. I used a lot of popsicle sticks on this rebuild.

I decided that a popsicle stick down the side with one cross member would reconstruct the battery box/nose  section frame nicely.

The shelf wasn't going back in, but I could build one out of popsicle sticks, but they had to go in with a bit of a V shape.

I wonder how this is going to work at the main body end? I fit the sections together and the shelf sticks were a bit long, but would work marvelously!

Now I had to turn my attention to the body. I trimmed back the sheared off sections to give me a more square boundary.

I created a strong joint surface with popsicle sticks.

The check fit the sections together. Spot on! I was using the bottom connections to indicate to me the length the nose section would require.

I CA''d a couple of match stick spars, and CA'd the sections together. I filled in gaps with scrap chips and CA'd them into one piece, more or less.

Same with the other side.

I slipped a piece of sheet balsa trimmed to fit wall to wall along the length and breadth of the nose section.

 I used the shelf as a width wise securing joint with CA.

I hand drilled a lot of holes in the sheet balsa. I used a piece of tongue depressor across the section. You can see how I cut the popsicle stick V shelf a bit short. I couldn't measure it and came up a bit short. Using the balsa sheet shelf as a joint surface overcame that mistake.

I put the battery cover on, perfect fit! I got the section's length perfect. Under the air holes of the cover you can see a piece of popsicle stick running width wise. I needed to strengthen the underside of the nose section with this cross member as the bottom sections had sheared at this joint.

I added a small rectangle of sheet balsa to either side over the piecemeal upper joints to consolidate the connection and strengthen as well as smooth it out.

Here's the other side.

I will let it sit tonight, inspect it in the morning and cote it all white tomorrow. Not sure how I will redo the red stripes. They were printed on the original cote. I will likely continue it forward with some kind of single strip of red.

The cowl took a beating, lots of cracks, no complete breaks. I have CA's the cracks, and will likely epoxy them tonite. Plan to repaint it tomorrow. I think it's going to look pretty good. Will need to recheck the CG after reinstalling the electronics. I had an AR 6100 on this bird, but will be replacing it with an HK Orange receiver and satellite receiver. I think the Master Airscrew props will be arriving in the mail tomorrow, and she'll be ready to fly again. Hopefully the two of us will figure out our relationship and the flying will go well, perhaps Wednesday? Yay!

Super Cub Crunch

It was a good day at BMF! The winds were persnickety, calm one moment, blustery the next, from the east one moment, the south the next.

I flew the Stearman and and Cornell, and even got the new Super Cub to fly. The rightish thrust vector solved the loop and roll problem, but she proved a twitchy flyer. As I flew her I found she still had a left roll tendency and had to trim in full right to compensate. Once I did that she flew well. I took her up again later and she threw herself nose in from 3 ft. Changed the prop and fixed the gear, she was otherwise fine. Took her up again later and she was super twitchy. Dropped to lower rates and she was hard to control. Took her back to full rates and toodled around a bit more, and she was still twitchy in the wind, but flew fine. I tried lower rates again and she became uncontrollable in the wind. I switched back to high rate but it was too late and she slammed nose in... She's repairable, but its going to take awhile.

I enjoyed the company of Ray, Jerry, Ron, Joe and the newly wed Kenny, with whom I had a cigar to celebrate! The weather is going to deteriorate over the next few days, so I don't expect much flying. I will likely work on the Super Cub again!

4 outta 5 ain't bad!

Today I started early, flying the Trojan, the Sopwith, the Stearman, the Cornell, and tried to maiden the Super Cub. They all flew marvelously, except the Super Cub.

She would roll hard right, and nose up in a loop immediately after takeoff. I think its a bad torque roll. Every single time, 'cause you see, if you keep doing the same thing over and over again things don't change... I ended up spending a couple of hours rebuilding the wing and firewall as she isn't very sturdy. She did it one last time, broke her prop. I accidentally throttled up and the motor shook itself free of the airplane. Damn. I'll rebuild the broken parts, including resetting the wing (a cracked spar). I think I'll try a right cant to the thust vector and see if that exorcises this recent voodoo. She is soooo pretty... I know once I solve this problem she will be sweet!

 I flew the Trojan several times, on the last flight I flipped her inverse a little low, which would have been fine if she climbed well inverted. She doesn't, and she dips when I roll her back up, this time right into the ground. Cracked wing (the old one, already beat up) and trashed her prop. That was it! Sturdy little bugger. Found her gear down, cockpit ejected, sitting pretty.

I also flew the Sopwith a couple of flights. She is so dainty. She struggles on the ground but once she breaks free she flies so gracefully and with such beauty! She lands like a child doing somersaults as she just can't deal with the terrain. At least she handles it well!

The Stearman flew marvelously! The first flight my heart was pounding and I held my breath in turns as that would be when she would spin the spin of death. But she never even hinted departing stable flight, and I just had a ball after that first nervous flight! She makes a wicked cool sound in the air, and is something else to see flying. I even managed to land perfectly every time! Wicked fun!


It was with a little apprehension, but a heckuva lot of determination that I rolled out the Cornell to the flightline. She kept getting tripped up with the turf. I got her running off and pulled back a bit more on the stick, and she lifted gracefully into the air! On rails! I took her to altitude and trimmed her a bit, and she was like the dream I have had again and again. She flew perfectly with excellent manners, predictable and stable, fast, slow, glides forever and stalls only with difficulty! On landing she comes in sweet to a nice controlled flare, even with a cross wind, and sets right down. I was thrilled! She flew consistently again and again, and finally I set her aside and counted myself very lucky. I need to tighten up her cote on the wing a little, but other than that she is primo. I am glad that Bobby got to see her fly today, after the craziness of Cornell #3.

I'll be away from flying this weekend doin' family stuff! Can't wait until I can get back and fly some more!

PowerlineHobbies-Green RC Models Super Cub

After completing the Cornell this morning, I set about building the Powerline Hobbies-Green RC Models Super Cub. There was no manual, really, just a build video. I did the best I could. It was rather straight forward, really, just not sure which screws went where.  I made one mistake, missing putting the tail wheel assembly together before I put the tail feathers on, but it worked out. I did change the aileron servo to a spare EXI D213f as the stock one didn't center well. The red wing struts didn't fit, being too long, and one side broke (the black shrink wrap over CA repair. I decided not to cote over it).  I took an AR6100 from one of my heli's and installed it. The quality of the kit is good, very good for the price I got it for all up! The pics aren't so good... it was a bit dark for pics in the workshop. I had fun adding stickers!

She looks really, really good! She is very light weight, but the landing gear are sturdy.

Check out the very cool articulated and spring levered tail gear.

I'm looking forward to flying her tomorrow!